Jojobobo

Do you mean bash doesn't hit twice when Taste of the Hunt procs? Or bash doesn't hit twice with HoF (as in each hit, doesn't generate a single additional hit on a different target)? Or just that you're not seeing the bash bug altogether. As both Loren Tyr and I tested the bash bug it would be weird if you couldn't replicate it, however perhaps with another effect in play the bash effect behaves correctly than it does in your average attack (which seems bugged, as mentioned).

Yeah it's three, and seeing as HoF is per encounter now anyway (plus the fact it's not that difficult to get two rings of Searing Flames if you just check the loot lists) this would be an OP combo to say the least. I know HoF is a late game ability, but changing it to per encounter is pretty brutal - even without the possibility of Combusting Wounds stacking. I suppose that's why they thought it was okay to make it per encounter, because you have to be so far into the game to actually pick it up.

Probably horrifically. I think that's a large problem with Obsidian, they patch out bugs without looking at the knock-on effects. And while maybe they're maybe hoping that these interactions are caught in the beta (whether they would patch them if reported is debatable), if the player base can anticipate interactions better than the developers then that's not great. I think the Monkster Lasher build is a great example of this, they made Retaliation (and that means all variants) now roll for accuracy but I really think they didn't anticipate the Monk's lashes also being applied to all Retaliation effects. Personally I've been thinking about other Retaliation builds, but then I come to it I consider, "Wouldn't the Monkster Lasher be doing a dramatically better job?" The answer is yes, yes it would - I think the game would benefit from reverting to the old Retaliation mechanics on the Fire Godlike trait but keep the other Retaliation mechanics for the rest, but by that point you've made the mechanics too nonsensical and obtuse for gamers' to grasp so it doesn't work. It's almost like the original v1.0 bug, where they didn't realise Retaliate would be affected by Carnage also, and then Fire Godlike Barbarian builds were monstering through the entire game - and that was okay for v1.0, but now I think we should have moved beyond that. Plus the fact that, I think these interactions definitely divide the fans - as you'll have some saying these are bugged and exploitative features and others that say they're in the game so yeah so what? A game where the mechanics are such that we can all comfortably read from the same page is definitely a better one, where there aren't any terribly exploitative avenues. This isn't to disparage against intelligently thinking of those combinations of newly patched mechanics either, just that maybe the devs should have thought of them first - and whether or not they wanted them in the game, and also whether it's best to continually change the goal posts on these issues. While I get there's a lot more balls in the air with games with complex defense systems and interactions, it's still not as fun when interactions between different effects aren't being thought upon as much as the player base. It's not lazy per se as there is so much to consider, but when certain builds stand head and shoulders above others (Monkster Lasher for example, or "enemies take 100+ damage per Retaliation hit") it becomes a bit silly. Players obviously need defined boundaries to play within, if those boundaries become haphazardly set then how players interact with those boundaries becomes worse. So what I'm saying is, I think the combo of Combusting Wounds and HoF will be a neutron bomb towards any mob you want to attack. In fact, I'm 95% sure without even bothering to test it this will be another overpowered features that, now the devs have patched themselves into a corner ("We apply one patch and there's problems with interactions, we apply another to fix that stuff and there's still new problems with interactions - when will these people be happy?!"), it'll probably just remain in game and be ridiculously strong. With some of these builds, it becomes a fact of - "Do I play this god build or one that is knowingly weaker?" As someone who has always enjoyed designing "optimum" builds for various games (as many hardcore RPG players do) it's a difficult choice to reconcile, especially when some of these issue are springing from a lack of foresight.

To regale people with more unwanted solo DPS Barbarian advice, Tall Grass is pretty good early on - but not for the reason you think (i.e., the prone effect). In party play most people use Tall Grass to shield their "squishy" Barbarian from taking damage but stationing him on your second row with it. On solo, seeing as you're taking damage anyway, I find it really helps to hit their second row so that you're getting your Carnage deeper into the mob - hitting the whole group. Honestly early on, your accuracy isn't good enough (this is coming from someone with a Weapon Focus and 18 Per) and with plate (which I still recommend - despite it being a bummer speedwise) you're not attacking fast enough to really maintain the prone (I'll level 5 currently, I'm sure when I get to level 8 maybe the prone will be juicier). I've also picked up Tall Grass in Act I for a change going to Dyrford Village (which I never normally do) - I would strongly recommend this course of action to anyone in the same boat. I'm considering picking up Angio's Gambeson for less recovery and for DAoM early, the DPS might be enough to offset the lack of DR - but Tall Grass set me back a penny. In terms of talents and abilities, I would strongly recommend Veteran's Recovery level 2 and Savage Defiance level 3 - that level of colossal healing so early is to be honest a life saver. If anyone was wondering where I get so much money so early, a pro-tip for backers going solo is to sell Guan's Pledge to Heodan for 2000+, kerching! He buys stuff off you for a dramatically increased value, so even if you aren't a backer I recommend selling him the Disappointer, anything you find in the chests, your weapons and - I'm not proud to say this - your clothes. You have to find the money for the Bronze Horn Figurine somehow! Also, definitely do the Blacksmith's quest before buying the figurine for 1000 gold discount.

Cheese tactics are what make a solo run

It doesn't seem too bad so far, the fact that my interrupt is so high does offset the issue that they are interrupting me all the time - it's kind of a stalemate The build was one of the rare one's that beat both the wolves and the bandits in Valewood upon fully resting (to get rid of that initial fatigue) - so that certainly is something in terms of a slight benchmark.

Can some please fix the stupid purple fabric shooting out the back of Thaos's left arm in the opening Cilant Lis section, it's been in the game since v1.0 and I think it gives a very bad impression of the game overall if that's what you see in one of the very first scenes. I guess I could have mentioned this a while ago, but now my threshold for what is a tolerable bug has dropped significantly and besides as developers I think it's a little embarrassing seeing as it's so early and it's supposed to set the tone of the game.

I decided to just go DPS Barbarian in the meantime (I'll leave the tank untouched), given Boeroer's experience that the low concentration isn't that punishing. I'm going low Res for the critical hit procs (Shod-in-Faith and Sanguine Plate) but also as much healing as I can manage (Moon Godlike, Veteran's Recovery, Shod-in-Faith plus Lost Periapt, Savage Defiance and Second Wind) with a Belt of Bountiful Healing and x1.6 survival bonus. I figure between huge DR (I'm picking up Thick-Skinned and Second Skin to go with the plate), massive healing (x2 Consecrated Grounds, in conjunction with all the other stuff I said, and Wound Binding to give me a large enough health pool to make use of those endurance heals) and high DPS plus ridiculous CC and accuracy (dual-wielding Godansthunyr and Strike Hard with Interrupting Blows - with Tall Grass which also benefits from WF Soldier in the meantime) I should do quite well. I'll do a class build if I get far enough solo, as although it is the typical CC + interrupt Barbarian I think the slant towards crazy healing gives it a tanky edge that hasn't featured overly in other builds (at least not Barb builds). Still, I would have preferred to just go pure tank, I guess I'll have to be patient.

I think they're talking about the 3 miss, 4 hit style now in the combat log. I have no clue if there's a way to get this more detailed however.

Sigh, bash appears to be bugged on Barbarians and hit more than once. I've made a bug report, but it seems like this is another build I'll have to shelve for the time being.

I noticed that with Carnage shield bash with Larder Door seems to attack outside the Carnage range and seemingly attacks more than once (two shield swinging noises are applied, and some enemies seem to get two rounds of Carnage applied with what should be one attack). I think the second bash attack is also being applied to a different target than the one which you are attacking, which would explain how it's hitting people outside the normal Carnage range (i.e. a second bash is being applied to someone to the back of the mob). Saves can be provided, but you can test it (which I did to confirm it after noticing it on my main character) at the initial camp site by consoling in Larder Door. I play Expert Mode on my main character so it was a little tricky to notice at first. This is obviously a problem for anyone wanting to play with one of the Barbarian's soulbound items - Dragon's Maw.

I still find it tough not to pick Moon Godlike on solo. Auto-heals are a much nicer benefit that most of what the other races have to offer, giving you 195 endurance back at level 16. With the third stage Survival healing bonus, and a Belt of Bountiful Healing/Fulvano's Amulet, that becomes 390 before you even factor in Might. Plus, the slots that you're using for potions and scrolls for healing can now be more easily dedicated to something of more use - e.g. offensive scrolls or figurines. I think when I play a class with enough healing likely then I'll go Fire Godlike or possibly something else (the Maegfolc Skull does provide nice healing late game in the helmet slot), and obviously kiters don't really need healing, but Moon Godlike definitely is a solid pick for solo.

Apart from when I first got the game, I've done nothing but solo on all my playthroughs - so I'm fairly practiced with what to do now, especially at the beginning of the game. I did think about making a guide for it at some point, or at least a guide for specific locations annotating the map (for example Stalwart, where there's a path you can take which avoids most of the fighting and gives you both good corner positioning for the final fight or a circuit to kite on if you're fast enough depending on your preference). I knew that they persisted when you were knocked out, but I never thought about luring the group away from you so you could survive. I guess it makes some sense logically as well (an enemy group could conceivably leave someone for dead) so I'll give it a try. Rogues are great solo because Shadowing Beyond means you can walk away from any fight any time you want to easily. Kill half a group, pop Shadowing Beyond, rest up - then come back and finish the others. It really gives Rogue's a massive advantage for solo (though it gives you a bit of a rude awakening when you first try Stalwart and you can't rest)! I'll definitely keep people posted on the tanky Barbarian, and will write up a class build if it can take down the Alpine Dragon, etc. It'll take a bit of time for it to get going though, there's probably not much to say about it until after Defiance Bay. Savage Defiance is rather absurd early on - it's currently healing me in the region of 180 endurance, when my character doesn't even have 100 endurance yet! Considering you get an extra Savage Defiance with Dragon's Maw, the healing late game should be pretty crazy. To me, the game was built with some content skipping in mind. Very few builds are going to be able to solo the bears when they first meet them, so you're more or less intended to come back at a higher level. Normally I aim to clear every map in an act before progressing to the next act, I think that's a pretty fair standard to set. I was doing fairly well with my Fighter going DPS on solo before they bugged Confident Aim. The DPS wasn't massive as I was using Hearth Harvest and the Vile Loner's Lance, but it was pretty consistent and the defenses were adequate for tanking. All that said, a rather massive advantage of taking the Peasant Weapon Focus and Specialization plus Mastery is that you become a beast with Persistence too. Likely, when I got to things like the Dragons, I would have kited with Persistence rather than try the DPS route. I guess I'll have to wait to 3.04 to finish that up.

I think the trick with Paladins and Fighters for solo is to focus on DPS while retaining some ability to tank, which isn't exactly hard to do given their innate defenses. Then the fights don't take half as long, and when you get to Sacred Immolation on a Paladin things should be much easier.

Personally I tend to avoid split-pulling quite a bit on solo and just come back to some encounters when I'm ready for them. There are a few tricks to get some quests done with minimal combat too, for example for the blacksmith's crate if you sneak from a north-easterly direction and time it right you can get the crate back without any confrontation (works even with no sneak investment) and for the Temple of Eothas, if you have reasonable mechanics, you can get finish the quest by heading into the room with the big spiders to left on the upper floor and pulling the hidden switch that gets you to the room with the bells and the big door, then on the lower floor you can just unlock the door that leads to the area where the remains are. You have to fight one Phantom, which is a pain, but other than that is relatively simple - then you can leave the rest and come back when you're a good level Also, for the task at Madhmr Bridge, if you approach it from the Anslog's Compass direction you appear on the eastern side of the map and don't have to deal with that damn skirmisher. In terms of getting to Raedric, you can do it by killing just two guys, then agree to help him - then go to Kolsc and agree to help him again instead, then you can go back and kill Raedric as you please - but you get experience at a lot of these stages. Stuff like this lets you level pretty rapidly, the trick is really just knowing where to go and what to do.

It sounds like you're becoming a solo-pervert like me! Tbh, I still finding it difficult to make optimum builds without being Moon Godlike (or to a lesser extent, Fire Godlike, as you've advocated often). It's extremely hard to replicate that innate healing or damage solo. Though people may try and so "oh WIld Orlan pays off" but the amount of times people are realistically hitting your Will defense is minimal. I think the thing is, finding variation in builds is really nice with those limited options. On the flip side, it may be that I'm too unwilling to try DPS solo when I can just tank - honestly I'll look to that when I try classes more geared to that ideal (e.g. Wizards). Taking down the Forgotten is always a pain, but I think the real proving ground it breaking into WM part I. You have a situation where you literally cannot rest, and you have 5 or 6 Figurines depending on whether you started Act III (I never count the Wurm figurine because it sucks). With my Fighter I kited the hard fights with Persistence, but with Rogue and a Deep Wounds Retaliation build (even before 3.03) I successfully tanked the fights with scrolls and guaranteed positioning given Shadowing Beyond (there is also an optimal route, snake south after the start, go west, then go north again to hit the boss ogre - for kiting there's a solo Ogre before the boss ogre to the north you can take out to make a circuit). From there, what I've experienced of WM I is much easier in comparison. But, my god, is it tough. I'm kind of looking forward to the 6 party playthroughs I allow myself, where I'm presuming (perhaps wrongfully) I'll be annihilating everything.

I'd say it looks like the effects of generations of inbreeding. Who's to say what you'd do when faced with Waidwen's Legacy to secure a favoured birth, you don't know! But goddamn it looks sexy.

I think that really is what sucks, as Fighters have above average accuracy anyway (without even touching on Disciplined Barrage or the high likelihood you'll be picking up a Weapon Focus to go along with the Specialization/Mastery) so you crit all the time - which nerfs the difficulty to an enormous extent on what should just be a regular and decent ability to take (on par with the other damage boosting talents and abilities, as you say). On the solo level 13 Fighter I keep moaning about I have 3005 crits, 7550 hits and yet only 1568 enemies defeated - just to put into perspective the buttload of crits a Fighter does (almost 2 per enemy on average) and how that pairs horribly with the current Confident Aim bug. While godmode may have been fun as a ten year old for an hour or two, these days I appreciate a good challenge and enjoy harsh difficulty. So long as they are implementing a fix I'm more or less happy though, I'll just wait it out with a different build until the next patch. I still stand by that ignoring the bug wasn't a great idea in any case.

I don't know, I never had too much problem with positioning in the first place on solo. Normally early game you don't take too much of a beating from disengagement anyway, mid-game you can use Aru-Brekr on a tank to find good positioning as needed, and mid to late game you get Boots of Speed in WM part I (or you can get them earlier in the Dyrford Ruins if you feel like you need them) or your Survival should be high enough to get a decent speed bonus out of it. Plus, with Dragon Leap it becomes a little redundant - I guess if you're okay respecing then you can get rid of later but I'm too hard-wired into old school RPGs where what you chose was what you chose to want to respec. It seems like the idea behind respecing, at least when it was first patched in, was so players could try several different talents and abilities and so they couldn't be locked in to one they found through experience they didn't like - so it seems to lower the difficultly a bit to tactically exploit it. With regards to your build Boeroer, how are you handling the low concentration? Late game there is at least the Periapt on solo, but it does come very late. I know you can pop a Potion of Spirit Shield when you're desperate, but it seems like it'd be such a drag to do frequently. Personally I'll probably use +2 Resolve armor earlier game and the resting bonus, then when I get a +3 Resolve item likely just switch to the Int resting bonus. Still I'm starting at 8 Resolve, 3 seems a little brutal even if you do have a whale of a time with per crit items.

Another point I forgot to mention in the OP is that Minor Fatigue shaves 10% off the enemies' endurance. While this may not be a big deal for weedy enemies, for high endurance enemies I'd say it's a pretty big deal - and another reason why it can potentially compete with the on crit weapons. Hmmm, for the character I've started playing, I do want a bit of advice on the final ability. So far I've got: 1 Barbaric Yell 3 Savage Defiance 5 One Stands Alone 7 Blood Thirst 9 Barbaric Shout 11 Heart of Fury 13 Dragon Leap 15 Echoing Shout/Thick-Skinned/Barbaric Retaliation 1-13 are non-negotiable, explanation as follows (I'll hide it not to bore everyone): The issue is the last choice. It seems as though Dragon Leap > Echoing Shout as the Dazed duration is much longer (rather absurdly long with high Int) so I definitely want that, plus the manoeuvrability is nice. However do I need more CC from Echoing Shout (more Dazed CC targeting a different defense giving me more options against Frightened Immune enemies, but at a shorter duration) or would Thick-Skinned be better (it's one of those things that's slightly harder to gauge on the whole, but you'd imagine in a long fight against a large group 3 physical damage DR will save you hundreds of points of endurance). I guess lastly Barbaric Retaliation might be nice - but I'm leaning away from it as obviously it's only hurting the enemies hitting you in the first instance. I'm currently thinking Shout would be the best. Any suggestions? Obviously there's no wrong answer here, so if anyone has a lot of Barbarian experience then I'm all ears. If someone convinces me on Thick-Skinned, obviously I'll take it sooner than level 15 and move most of the other abilities down.

people find balance important. The bug OP is up in arms about is a problem specifically because it affects balance. Except it doesn't really because of a few reasons. 1: He can pick other talents. 2: It still isn't half as game breaking as he claims it is, and in it's normal state it actually is a pretty "meh" talent. 3: Pretty sure in 3.02 some people claimed for them it didn't even work, so being OP is better than not working period. 4: Don't we already have a Obsidian post stating there will be some more patching where this will likely be fixed? 1) As I mentioned, there's very few good abilities for that level 3 slot. If you're going for a Apprentice Sneak Attack build than a case could be made for Knock Down, but both Defender and Guardian Stance gimp the Fighter to an extent and they're not very good. It's simply not enjoyable to consciously pick a worse option when if things were working correctly you could have a better one. Also, if you know so much about the game and what I should and should not be doing, maybe you should stop calling abilities "talents". 2) Now you're going way off base, I never said it was "game-breaking". However, as I do keep saying, it's like the equivalent of a further 10 Might - at which point I may just be cheating. Maybe you enjoy cheating in your games to lower the difficulty, but I don't. 3) I think it's more likely people weren't realising it was working as the damage buff isn't represented in your damage range as far as I can tell, so you have to watch the combat numbers to work out what's going on. The graze to hit conversion certainly works, and is very useful throughout the game. 4) They made that post, but then said 3.03 was the last patch. Sorry for assuming when people say something as plainly as "last" patch that I shouldn't just take that on face value and believe the older comment was in error. They've now rectified their mistake, but at the time it seemed pretty cut and dry that they weren't making any other patches. The ridiculous thing is, you keep telling me that I'm getting irritated by the most minor of things and act like anything that's not perfect would upset me, but there's loads of bugs that I've consistently ignored and not made any sort of fuss about. The bug where you're drinking a potion (usually a health potion early game, when you need that extra endurance to win the fight) and the animation plays but nothing happens - and then you die. Or when a summon dies paralysed or petrified and then proceeds to show up in every map from then on, as far as I know this has never been fixed and it sucks the immersion right of the game. There's also extremely minor things, like cloaks not showing on mac, but regardless it is still a thing. I'm fine looking past those flaws as you can just reload to sort them out (as in for the paralysis bug, reload to a point where your summon didn't die, if you save when it's dead that bug is permanent) or they're minor and cosmetic. But when it's a bug in their actual mechanics it is annoying, and when they handled it like they did, that's also annoying. As I mentioned earlier, any character building choice you have to make differently in a game because of a bug (e.g. avoiding Confident Aim, or respecing it out) feels extremely unrewarding for a player to have to do. But I guess just carry on in your dream world, thinking that this is appropriate customer service and that absolutely nothing should have been done at the time when this bug was reported in the beta. If you think it's fine for companies to act like this, then I pity you for how other businesses must be taking you for a chump in everyday life.

I think that's where the Lost Periapt edges Shod in Faith, you can activate Consecrated Ground when you want, and it gives you Resolve plus a crap load of Concentration. Sure it's late game, but you know what you can be running early game when your defenses are low - Shod in Faith. As long as you don't dump your Resolve too hard (I'm pitching it at 8 for an even 10 with the Periapt) I think they can be a bit synergistic - and beside on PotD you'll always take a crit at some point anyway. Concerning Stalwart Defiance - I'm not sure it's all it's cracked up to be. The duration isn't incredibly long (even with Barbarian's high Int) and you're only getting it once per fight. I guess where it might be interesting is with Dragon's Maw which gives you an extra Savage Defiance, but I'm not sure quite how you test Soulbound items in their later states through the console. With two activations and 25 Int you're looking at +10 defenses at around almost a minute and a half - which is pretty decent, especially in conjunction with all the other crazy stuff I mentioned. I guess I'll test it when I've levelled the shield. I'm sure it will be a piece of cake, or more like I'm sure through my hours of various efforts he'll eventually go down through attrition - either way it's a win-win

I see what you're saying, but it seems like it can be a little tricky (at least more so than a Fighter, and remembering that Frenzy is a still short-lived to an extent even on a Barb) to maintain stun for an entire - and also you'll have to go for lower DR armor. If you set the Barb up to tank on the other hand, then they are always going to be reliable and not let attacks hit for much damage on what would be your relatively lowish defenses in the other instance. I don't know, this is my first time truly playing a Barb so if you can Stun/Prone lock people so easily maybe that would be a better option. On the flip side, if you only ever watch people being stunned and not able to attack for most of the fight - it seems a little boring/broken doesn't it? As I'm only looking to solo play anyway, I think going for a tank role is certainly a bit easier - in terms of even if you don't bust through trash mobs quite so quickly in the bigger fights your defenses matter. I'd be interested if someone else takes the instance DPS and CC route on solo with no respec-ing, I sure it would work in the long run but there'll be a lot of situations where sticking with that build over a tank is brutal.

So given that my solo PotD Fighter playthrough is bugged for the near future, I cast my lustful eye over to the Barbarian to see what juicy goodies he might offer me on a new playthrough. Being the fetishist I am, I decided to I wanted a Barbarian without Frenzy and with high Deflection, plus shedloads of healing and stuff which would make him a good tank. I then realised that Barbarians have a mass of -10 accuracy effects through dazed and frightened/terrified, with Barbaric Shout being -20 - an effective buff to all your defenses in the form of a debuff of -10/20. Given the number of debuffs you have at your disposal, and the fact I then tested this with Captain Viccilo's Anger, which works with Carnage and stacks with these affects - a further -10 debuff with in conjunction with its 5 deflection buff. Leaving Resolve at 10 for the game (or you know, 8 with the Lost Periapt), with Weapon and Shield Style (going for bash shields, natch) if you use Dragon's Maw (healing plus a sweet bash) with Superior Deflection and the hatchet plus say Gauntlets of Deflection you hit a natural deflection of 105. Add in the previous effects, and this becomes 125/135 depending on whether you're going for frightened/dazed or terrified - and that +20/30 is adding to all your other defenses too. Then there's stuff like Heart of Fury, which is now per encounter! Also, while you're waiting on the late game hatchet, feel free to use the Vile Loner's Lance which falls under the same Weapon Focus and is standard Barbarian bread and butter. Suffice to say, I think a tank Barb could give a paladin a run for its money. I'll give this bad boy a go and post up a character build when I'm done. What are everyone elses' thoughts on (a) the new 3.03 Barbarian and (b) Captain Viccilo's Anger? To me that hatchet is hideous, especially in the hands of a Barbarian. I'm really not sure whether Barbarian stun/prone-locking or Barbarian Viccilo's Anger tanking is better in general, either for party or solo play.

I'm sure the devs don't actually care much about any one individual's belly-aching, but I guess if it gets put about on the forum enough they may be inclined to get a bit more of a move on. I'm guessing I'm trying to say, whenever you need a whiny nitpicking douchebag - I'm your man. Well they fixed the reported issues with fixes in beta, but didn't introduce any new fixes. I'm pretty sure those are called "release candidates" and not "betas", but... Whatever. The subforum for it is called "Patch Beta Bugs and Support" implying it's not necessarily a release candidate. I thought what defines a release candidate was where there were no known important bugs left in, which I think Confident Aim does qualify as - even if it isn't gamebreaking. With regards to the class balance, I can't speak for the Barbarian (I've not really dipped my beak into one yet, I think I'll try one while I wait for them to fix the Fighter) but with the Rogue their were several abilities that you would just never take for any reason. The rebalance has really seen to making these abilities now pretty satisfying - particularly Riposte and Adept Evasion. They did a pretty good job in that respect.